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• labyrinth
  labyrinth

  noun

  an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.
• Labyrinth
  Labyrinth

  noun

  Greek myth a huge maze constructed for King Minos in Crete by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur

labyrinth

American  

[lab-uh-rinth] / ˈlæb ə rɪnθ /

noun

• labyrinths
  plural

1. an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.

   Synonyms:

   web, network, maze

2. a maze of paths bordered by high hedges, as in a park or garden, for the amusement of those who search for a way out.

3. a complicated or tortuous arrangement, as of streets or buildings.

   Synonyms:

   knot, tangle, snarl, jungle, maze, warren

4. any confusingly intricate state of things or events; a bewildering complex.

   His papers were lost in an hellish bureaucratic labyrinth.

   After the death of her daughter, she wandered in a labyrinth of sorrow for what seemed like a decade.

   Synonyms:

   morass, forest, jungle, wilderness

5. Classical Mythology. Labyrinth. a vast maze built in Crete by Daedalus, at the command of King Minos, to house the Minotaur.

6. Anatomy.

   1. the internal ear, consisting of a bony portion bony labyrinth and a membranous portion membranous labyrinth.

   2. the aggregate of air chambers in the ethmoid bone, between the eye and the upper part of the nose.

7. a mazelike pattern inlaid in the pavement of a church.

8. Also called acoustic labyrinth;, acoustical labyrinth. Audio. a loudspeaker enclosure with air chambers at the rear for absorbing sound waves radiating in one direction so as to prevent their interference with waves radiated in another direction.

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labyrinth ¹ British  

/ ˈlæbərɪnθ /

noun

1. a mazelike network of tunnels, chambers, or paths, either natural or man-made Compare maze

2. any complex or confusing system of streets, passages, etc

3. a complex or intricate situation

4. 1. any system of interconnecting cavities, esp those comprising the internal ear

   2. another name for internal ear

5. electronics an enclosure behind a high-performance loudspeaker, consisting of a series of air chambers designed to absorb unwanted sound waves

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Labyrinth ² British  

/ ˈlæbərɪnθ /

noun

1. Greek myth a huge maze constructed for King Minos in Crete by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur

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labyrinth Scientific  

/ lăb′ə-rĭnth′ /

1. The system of interconnecting canals and spaces that make up the inner ear of many vertebrates. The labyrinth has both a bony component, made up of the cochlea, the semicircular canals, and the vestibule, and a membranous one.

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Labyrinth Cultural  

1. In classical mythology, a vast maze on the island of Crete. The great inventor Daedalus designed it, and the king of Crete kept the Minotaur in it. Very few people ever escaped from the Labyrinth. One was Theseus, the killer of the Minotaur.

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Discover More

A labyrinth can be literally a maze or figuratively any highly intricate construction or problem.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• labyrinths
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of labyrinth

First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin labyrinthus, from Greek labýrinthos; replacing earlier laborynt, from Medieval Latin laborintus, Latin, as above

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Explanation

A labyrinth is a structure with many connected paths or passages in which it is hard to find your way. In figurative use, a labyrinth is a complicated situation: our tax code is a labyrinth of rules and regulations. In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was the structure built for King Minos of Crete to confine the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. The word maze is a near synonym for labyrinth, and is also used figuratively, as in, "After war broke out, trying to figure out how to get a visa to leave the country was like navigating a maze, a veritable labyrinth of wrong turns and false hope."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

labyrinth Labyrinth labyrinths

And because it creates a labyrinth of different payers, it also drives up the administrative costs of the doctors and hospitals as well.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 21, 2026

With no one interesting to root for, I lost track of “HOTD’s” labyrinth of houses, realms, battles and armies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

He returned with a torch and said it felt like "a labyrinth".

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

But logic can’t win out — you don’t even remember how you got into this labyrinth to begin with.

From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026

Around her neck hung a strange bronze-and-emerald pendant, like a circular labyrinth.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro will mark the 20th anniversary of Oscar-winning "Pan's Labyrinth" on Friday.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

Among other things, he directed Personal Services, which starred Julie Walters, and was the screenwriter for Labyrinth, starring David Bowie.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2025

Last week, Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro criticised AI-generated video during a talk at the British Film Institute in London, saying it could not generate much beyond "semi-compelling screensavers".

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2024

By LaDarrion Williams Labyrinth Road: 432 pages, $21 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2024

He saw Minos, his old ghostly mentor, leading him through the Labyrinth.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

The stations are designed as logical sequences of space, not as labyrinths you wander through.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

As art objects, they draw from ’60s minimalism: her monoliths, prisms, cubes, spheres, matrices, labyrinths and French curves are finished in porcelain-white, each a pristine, planar specimen.

From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024

With help from an experienced underwater cave-diving team, Northwestern University researchers have constructed the most complete map to date of the microbial communities living in the submerged labyrinths beneath Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2023

“It’s a mystery that there wasn’t more of a community because there are labyrinths here,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023

That was why some people used labyrinths to think, to ponder, to meditate or pray.

From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

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